Wanting To Desert Poem by Marcus Mosiah Garvey

A Negro who got rich did stray
To claim he was not of the race,
But all the world could only say
He was a fool and sore disgrace.


You cannot change your skin, my man,
For Nature made you as you are;
Your wish to break your father's clan
Is ignorance that goes too far.


The woman of another race
You choose to share your fortune with
And have her take your mother's place
May slay you as in Siren's myth.


And when you find the deed unwise
It will be late, too late to mend,
For then the race you did despise
Will count you out with traitor's end.